


revised familial relations and queer studies

by Rustyanklebraclet



Series: Community episode rewrites [4]
Category: Community (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Episode Related, Episode: s02e10 Mixology Certification, Fix-It, Getting Together, M/M, canon compliant until halfway through 02.10 basically, jeff and britta being parents, pierce is awful in this sorry about that i just didnt have the energy to redeem him
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-23
Updated: 2020-05-23
Packaged: 2021-03-03 01:53:46
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,147
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24343081
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rustyanklebraclet/pseuds/Rustyanklebraclet
Summary: In which Troy figures some things out, and he's got a family behind him every step of the way.
Relationships: Troy Barnes/Abed Nadir
Series: Community episode rewrites [4]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1772773
Comments: 24
Kudos: 407





	revised familial relations and queer studies

**Author's Note:**

> I wrote this all in one sitting, and normally when i do that it turns out... bad. but i went to edit this today, and i'm honestly really proud of it.
> 
> a mild trigger warning for some homophobic language/attitudes (no explicit slurs are used), but its brief and gets shut down pretty quick.

“I’m gonna head to the bathroom, I think,” says Britta. Jeff and Troy nod as she stands, and Troy's gaze turns back out into the bar.

His eyes fall on to Abed, who is talking to a guy at the bar. Abed seems, (at least, to Troy) to be excited about whatever he’s talking about, whereas the other guy seems to be more listening out of politeness. He wonders what it is, just as the guy places a hand on Abed’s knee.

_Huh._

Just as Troy starts to wonder if he’s been staring at Abed too long, he hears Jeff's voice next to him.

“So,” he says “anyone catch your eye?”

Troy gives Jeff a slightly alarmed glance. “What?”

“This bar is full of women, Troy,” says Jeff, “they’re yours for the taking. It's your birthday, you gotta celebrate! So who’ll it be?”

Troy shrugs.

“Haven’t really thought about it.”

“Then think about it now! Take a look around, make your choice, and go for it! You’re a man now, Troy!”

Troy looks around the bar, mostly just to indulge Jeff, who is now watching him intently. He sweeps the dark room for a few seconds, before his eyes land on Abed and the guy again. The hand is moving further up his best friend’s leg, and his stomach churns in that way that he only allows it to late at night, in the quiet dark of his bedroom (or, rather, Pierce’s guest room). He licks his bottom lip as he watches the pair intently, before shaking his head and turning back to Jeff.

“I don’t know.”

Something flashes over Jeff's face for half a second, before he adjusts his expression and nods.

“It’s up to you, man.”

“What’s up to him?” asks Britta, who neither of them had noticed had returned. Troy explains, and Jeff groans as she scolds him for treating sex like a game and women like prizes to be scored. Troy tunes them both out and watches as Abed and the guy seem to get into some sort of argument. The guy throws his drink on to Abed, who sits there, quiet and dripping wet, while the guy yells something else as he walks away.

“Hey, guys? I’m just gonna-” he cuts himself off, realizing that neither of them is listening as Britta continues to lecture Jeff, and Jeff continues to ignore her.

He walks over to Abed and stands where the guy had been sitting.

“What was that?” he asks.

“I let him hit on me despite having no interest in him so I could talk about Farscape.” says Abed, staring intently at Troy as the man’s drink drips off his nose. Troy watches the liquid intensely for a moment, before stomping down the feeling in his gut once more and reaching for a handful of napkins out of the holder on the bar and jerkily handing them to Abed.

“Thanks”

Troy nods as Abed wipes at his face. He pats at his shirt for a moment, before frowning slightly.

“This seems ineffective. I’m gonna go dry this under the hand drier in the bathroom.”

Troy nods again and does _not_ think about Abed shirtless as he watches him walk away.

“It’s cool, you know.”

Troy turns around, alarmed, to see Jeff leaning against the bar on the other side of him. He frowns.

“What is?”

Jeff makes a vague gesture, half in the direction of the direction Abed had left in and half into the general air.

“The whole... gay thing. It’s cool.”

A deadweight immediately replaces the fluttering in Troy's stomach. He takes a shaky breath and looks away.

“You sound like Britta. It’s cool you support gay people, man, I don’t need to hear about it.” he laughs, shakily. Jeff looks at him and takes a long drink from his glass, clearly thoroughly unconvinced.

“It’s none of my business” he says, after a moment “but if someone, or multiple someones, _were_ gay, then we would all be cool with it. You know that, right? Peirce would probably be, well, Peirce about it. And it might take Shirley a minute to warm up to. But it’s… we wouldn’t think any differently of them.”

Jeff looks out at the bar, flagging down the bartender, who steps away from a conversation with Annie to replace his drink. He takes a sip and sets it down.

“Well, I mean, what if this someone doesn’t… doesn’t know if they’re gay? And what if they know that they might be, probably are, but their parents would flip, and I mean _flip_ , if they found out, and they would probably never see them again.” says Troy, slowly. He watches Jeff as he speaks, who, because he’s one of the greatest men Troy knows, does not come anywhere close to meeting Troy's eyes once. He just quietly watches his drink the entire time.

“The first one sounds like a conversation for Britta, who, as much as I hate to admit it, is actually kind of helpful with that social justice stuff sometimes. As for the second one, I would tell that someone that they have a real family right here, that’s gonna accept them no matter what.” he turns to Troy now, making eye contact “and if their blood family can’t, then - and I mean this - then fuck them.”

Troy blinks hard once, twice, three times, and swallows. Jeff turns away after this, takes a sip of his drink, and moves to walk away.

“You know, assuming this someone exists,” he says, with a grin that is deeply Jeff Winger, before disappearing.

Abed sits down where he had previously been a moment later, head cocked as he watches Jeff from across the room.

“I feel like I've missed a very important Jeff Winger speech,” he says.

Troy shrugs. “It was nothing special.”

Abed doesn’t respond, seeming satiated with that answer.

**\---**

Later, he’s driving everyone home. They’ve already dropped Annie off, and Britta points to an exit up ahead.

“You can drop me off here” she says.

Troy nods, and they pull up to an apartment building. Jeff steps out of the car so she can clamber out after him, and she sways dangerously the moment her feet hit the pavement. Jeff moves to support her, but overshoots and nearly trips as well. Abed sits perfectly still in his seat, watching them with a vaguely curious look on his face.

“Okay, Britta, why don’t I walk you in?” Troy says, getting out of the car and walking around to where they stand. Normally, he would have expected her to protest on the principle of being a strong, independent woman, but she just nods quietly and puts an arm around his shoulder.

They don’t speak until they reach her front door.

“I’m not going to thank you for walking me, because I didn't need it,” she says “if anything, you should be thanking me for keeping your fragile masculinity intact.”

Troy nods, smiling. She’s digging through her purse for her keys when Troy remembers what Jeff had said to him.

“Britta?”

“Yeah?” she replies, not looking up from her purse.

“You know about, um...” he searches for the words ‘you know about gay stuff, right?’

Britta looks up at him, an odd look on her face.

“If you’re asking me if I’m gay, and trying to feed into some disgusting fantasy you have about-”

“I’m not!” says Troy “it’s nothing like that.”

Britta appears to accept this answer, but still seems unconvinced when she speaks again.

“Well then, yeah, I know a fair bit. As an avid ally of the community, I try to educate myself.”

The little Jeff Winger living in his head rolls his eyes so hard it makes a noise, but Troy ignores him.

“Can I… ask you a question? It’s for a friend of mine, trying to figure some, uh, some stuff out.”

Something not dissimilar to what Troy saw on Jeff hours earlier settles on to Britta's face, but she doesn’t push it away. Just nods.

“What is it?”

“Well, this guy. He spent all of his life liking girls, has always done well with them, has always _wanted_ to do well with them. But recently he’s been having feelings for guys - well, more one guy - but it’s not like he doesn’t like girls anymore. So, it’s like, he doesn’t know how he’s supposed to choose, or if there’s something wrong with him, or if-”

“Troy.”

Troy looks up as Britta gently places a hand on his arm.

“Yeah?”

“Have you - or has your friend - ever heard the term bisexual?”

Troy furrows his eyebrows as he shakes his head. Britta nods like that’s what she was expecting.

“Okay. Do you know what bi means?”

Troy shakes his head again.

“Bi means two. And bisexual means that you like both. You’re not gay, and you’re not straight. Sometimes it’s a 50/50 split, and sometimes it's a 99/1 split.”

A lightbulb flicks on somewhere in Troy's head.

“There’s nothing wrong with bisexual people. They’re not broken, they don’t need to choose. They just aren’t either gay or straight.”

Troy nods, and Britta nods back. She removes her hand, and sorts through her bag for another moment before finally pulling out a keyring with, among other things, a small tube of mace attached to it.

She unlocks her apartment and pushes the door open, but leans against the doorframe for another moment, looking at him.

“I know a bit about Jehovah's Witness, about the philosophies that they teach their kids,” she says “your friend, Troy, he isn’t gross or evil or going to hell for this. You know that, yeah?”

Troy nods, slightly, but her expression shifts and he can tell she’s caught everything he’s having trouble saying.

“Thanks” he mumbles, not trusting his own voice with more than that. But she smiles before she shuts the door, and he holds his hand up in a sort of wave as he leaves.

“Jesus, took you long enough. What were you guys even doing, banging?” Jeff asks when Troy gets in the car. He snorts at how far from the truth that is and starts the car.

“How do I get to your place, Jeff?” he asks, once they’re back on the road.

“How do you-” Jeff scoffs “this is _my car_.”

“Yeah, and it will still be your car when you pick it up from the Greendale parking lot tomorrow.”

“ _The Greendale parking lot_?” asks Jeff, “absolutely not. You can drop off Abed and yourself, and I'll drive home.”

“No way, man,” says Troy.

“Or else what?”

“I’ll tell Shirley you drove home drunk.”

Jeff opens his mouth, and then closes it, seemingly realizing Troy has won.

“Take a left up here” he mumbles.

Abed moves to the passenger seat when Jeff gets out. He stares quietly out the window as they drive, neither of them making any effort to make conversation. It’s unusual, considering they always have something to talk about, but it isn’t uncomfortable.

“That guy, tonight,” says Troy, when they’re nearly at Greendale, “why did you let him hit on you?”

He cocks his head. “I told you. It was a good excuse to talk about Farscape.”

“Yeah, but,” Troy pauses, “it didn’t bother you?”

Abed’s mouth creases incrementally. “Him hitting on me? I told you, I attract girls pretty easily, I don’t mind.”

“Yeah, but, you know...”

The slight frown deepens. “I don’t.”

“It was a guy,” says Troy, bluntly “that didn’t bug you at _all_?”

“Why would it bother me?” asks Abed. he frowns for a moment, before his expression shifts in understanding “Oh, you’re asking if I was uncomfortable because he assumed I’m gay. I wasn't. I’ve never understood people that are. Things like that are impossible to read unless you’re basing it on stereotypes, which are rarely effective tools in those situations. Why would it bother you if somebody made a simple mistake?”

Abed makes a face, and then shakes his head, clearly deep in thought. Troy thinks about this for a moment, and takes a deep breath as they pull into the Greendale campus and he drives around to the entrance closest to Abed’s dorm.

“Are you, though?” he asks as Abed looks at him, confused “Gay, I mean.”

Abed seems to think about this, looking out the windshield at the dark parking lot. After a deafeningly silent moment, he just turns back to Troy and shrugs.

“More or less. I haven’t given it much thought.”

“Oh,” says Troy.

“Are you?” asks Abed, point-blank. Troy usually appreciates Abed's direct approach to things, but now is not one of those times.

“Um,” says Troy, heart racing.

“You don’t have to answer,” says Abed, shrugging again.

Troy nods, staring intently at his hands on the steering wheel “No, it’s fine. I, well, I don’t really know. At least a bit, I think.”

Abed nods.

“If this were TV, we would probably kiss right now,” Abed remarks, after a moment of silence. Troy turns to him in moderate alarm.

“We can, if you want to.” says Abed.

“Do _you_ want to?”

Abed nods, ever so slightly, and Troy leans forward, gently pressing his lips to Abed’s. The kiss is short, and simple, but it’s everything he could have ever wanted. As they separate, the feeling in his stomach becomes permanently impossible to press down, and he feels it spilling out into the car.

They stare at each other, both clearly unsure how to proceed. In an unexpected development, Abed leans into Troy’s space, and this kiss is far messier than before, Abed’s long arms wrapping around the back of Troy’s neck as Troy fists his hand in the front of Abed’s shirt. It lasts longer, too, and Abed is all flushed when he pulls back. Troy thinks it might be the most beautiful thing he’s ever seen. But Abed holds up a hand and sits fully back in his seat.

“Wait.”

“What is it?” asks Troy.

“I need to be clear that I have feelings for you, and have for some time. If you are kissing me in an attempt to relieve sexual confusion, then I respect that you have that right, but I would prefer that you do so with somebody else.”

Troy stares at him blankly.

“That’s, um, not what this is,” says Troy.

“Oh,” says Abed “I didn't think it was, but it thought it was best to be sure. Do you want to stay in my dorm tonight?”

Troy nods, and Abed smiles at him before they step out of the car.

**\---**

The group files into the library on Monday, buzzing about their final week of classes as they take their seats. Troy is engaged in a conversation with Annie and Shirley that Peirce keeps trying (and failing) to worm his way into when Abed nudges his knee under the table. He turns to face him as Peirce interrupts Annie to make a joke that causes the two women to stare at him blankly.

“Do you want to do it now?” asks Abed.

Troy nods, somewhat hesitant “why not?”

“Multiple reasons,” says Abed “remember? We made a pros and cons list. It’s in my bag if you need to see it again-”

“No,” says Troy “I meant as a yes”

“Sorry,” says Abed “I’m bad with rhetoric”

“I know,” says Troy, “it’s alright.”

Abed gives him a small smile, and Troy turns to face the group, hand finding Abed's under the table with relative ease.

He clears his throat. “Hey, guys?”

Everyone turns to him, but his eyes find Jeff’s. Jeff seems to already know what’s coming, because he’s Jeff, and he always seems to know what’s coming, and gives him a small nod.

“Uh...” he turns to Abed, words caught in his throat. Abed, who is already looking at him, catches the hesitation.

“Are you sure?” he murmurs, and Troy nods.

“Yeah, I am. Just… can you?”

Abed nods, and they both turn back to the group, who are all (except for Jeff, and maybe Britta) watching them with varying levels of confusion.

“Troy and I are romantically involved, as of Saturday night. Well, technically early Sunday morning.”

Britta and Jeff barely react (though he’s pretty sure he sees Britta pass a twenty to Jeff later that day), and Annie gives them a blinding smile.

“You guys!” she says excitedly “that’s so great!”

She stands, and runs around the table to hug both of them at the same time.

“I’m so happy for you guys,” she says, still beaming.

“Thanks, Annie,” says Troy, as she returns to her seat, and Abed shoots her a smile across the table.

Shirley and Pierce are unsurprisingly quiet.

“Either of you want to say anything?” says Britta after a far-too-long moment has passed.

Shirley is staring at the table, clutching her purse in her lap. Pierce, however, looks up, addressing the group.

“Well, if I had to place bets on who was gonna turn out to be a fruit, I would have picked Abed, that’s for sure. But you, Troy? Surprising. Guess it makes sense you played sports, showers must have been a real time for you, huh?”

There’s a stunned silence. Nobody seems completely sure how to respond, with the exception of Shirley, who continues to very pointedly keep her head down.

Peirce is looking around with a familiar expression, one that says that he understands his joke was offensive, but doesn’t know (or, really, care) why.

Troy expects Jeff, or maybe Britta, to say something. But the first voice comes from the opposite corner of the table.

“Pierce,” says Annie, voice quiet and mutinous, “you need to leave.”

Pierce rolls his eyes. “Come on, guys. Are we really gonna do this _again_?”

“No,” says Jeff “Annie's right. You need to step out.” 

Peirce looks at the group. Everyone (except Shirley) looks back, devoid of sympathy.

“Alright, whatever,” says Pierce “do what you want.”

The only noise that can be heard as he leaves is the faint hum of his wheelchair.

“Shirley?” says Britta, quietly, once he’s gone “do you have anything to say?”

Her head lifts, and she faces Abed and Troy directly.

“I think very highly of both of you. But you have to understand that this goes against everything that I have based my life upon. This is your choice, I am not your mother and I have no say in what you do. But I hope that, for your own sake, you find the lord before it’s too late. He will forgive you.”

A heavy silence falls over the room as Shirley stands, swings her purse over her shoulder, and leaves. The door swings shut behind her, and there’s a beat before Abed stands, very quickly, and exits from the other side of the room.

Three sets of eyes fall on Troy, who is still sitting quietly at the table.

“I’m gonna-”

“Go,” says Jeff, and Troy hurries after him.

Troy finds Abed in the washroom down the hall. He’s not doing anything, just sitting quietly on the counter of the sink, legs swinging back and forth, looking almost bored.

“Hey,” he says upon seeing Troy.

“Hey.”

“Are you alright?”

“I came in here to ask you the same question. You ran out of there pretty quickly.”

“Oh, I did that for you,” says Abed “I assumed you would want to leave, but wouldn’t do it if I was still there, because you don’t like causing a scene. I thought that if I left, you would have the excuse of following me. Did I misread that? We can just go back and study if you want.”

“No, you, uh, you didn’t misread it. But you didn’t have to do that.”

“I didn’t do it because I had to,” says Abed, sliding off the counter to stand. “I did it because we’re friends. Or are we boyfriends? I don’t know, we never talked about it.”

Troy shakes off the warm feeling hearing Abed say the word _boyfriends_ gives him.

“Wait, so that didn’t bother you at all?”

Abed shrugs. “It was almost exactly what I expected. Annie, Jeff, and Britta were supportive, though Jeff and Britta already either knew or suspected. Peirce made an offensive joke and stomped out when people got mad, and Shirley was unwilling to set aside her beliefs and left with relatively more dignity.”

Troy nods.

“Are you upset?” Abed asks.

Troy shakes his head with a faint smile. He walks forward, and rests his head on Abed's chest.

“I’ll be alright.”

Abed's chin rests on his head for a moment, before he feels Abed's arm move upwards as he checks his watch.

“We’re going to be late, by the way.”

Troy lifts his head, and looks at Abed. He leans upwards, capturing his mouth quickly in a kiss, and the look on Abed’s face when he pulls away makes everything worth it.

“Shirley will come around, I believe.” says Abed, as they walk down the hall “she just needs to think about it for a few days.”

Part of the sentence is missing, and it hangs in the air between them, best left unsaid.

_Pierce probably won’t._

Sure enough, they’re walking across the quad on Wednesday morning, when Shirley materializes in front of them.

“Boys,” she says “can I speak to you?”

They both nod, and walk into the building together to escape the biting December morning.

“I’m sorry for the way I acted,” she says, standing quietly in the hallway as Greendale starts coming to life around them. “I care about you both very much. I have certain values as a Christian woman, but I’m learning that not everyone needs to share those values. And that’s alright.”

She reaches into her purse, and pulls out a Tupperware of what appears to be brownies.

“Baked from scratch. It’s going to take me a little while to adjust to. But I’m going to try” she’s quiet for a moment, before shaking her head “no, I’m not going to try. I’m going to do it.”

Troy and Abed smile, and she pulls both of them into a hug, placing the container in Troy's hands when they separate.

They arrive at the study room to find Annie, Jeff, and Britta blocking Pierce's entry.

“Guys, will you get over yourselves? It was just a joke, they clearly don’t even care.”

“Okay,” says Britta “for the thousandth time, are you going to apologize?”

“Of course the lesbian takes their side!” he says

Britta huffs irately, and steps in front of Pierce as he tries to enter the room again.

“Ah! There they are” says Pierce, seeing Abed, Troy, and Shirley “tell them it was just a joke! If you can let her back in, surely you can do the same for me!”

Jeff opens his mouth, but Shirley holds out a hand, stooping slightly down to look Pierce in the eye.

“Pierce Hawthorne” she says, voice cold “listen to me, and listen good. You are a vile man. I barely tolerate you after what you did to me, but I keep my mouth shut, because I am a woman of faith and I believe in forgiveness. But I am going to have to spend a very long time in confessional if you come near these boys ever again with anything less than a full, genuine apology. Do you hear me?”

Pierce nods, and she stands up straight, pointing towards the library door as he silently wheels out. The group stares at her in varying levels of awe, and she shifts rather uncomfortably, eyes focused on the carpet.

“Troy, open those brownies. I think we could all use them right now.”

Troy nods, and they all trail in after her as he opens the container and sets it in the middle of the table.

As he sits, Pierce's empty seat is glaringly obvious. He frowns at the dusty, splintering chair, before a large purse is set down on top of it.

He looks up, and Shirley smiles at him. He smiles back.

His hand finds Abed's, and this time they rest on top of the table. Annie is unsuccessful in hiding her grin, and Shirley blinks a few times before she nods, and reaches for a brownie.

Britta compliments her baking, and Jeff tells Troy and Abed very loudly that if they get gross and mushy he is going to kick them out of the group himself, before Shirley quietly points out exactly what he and Britta did on the very table that they’re eating off of.

Troy knows that he hasn’t told his parents, and that the worst is very much yet to come. But Jeff's words on Saturday night wander back to him as he looks around at his family.

He squeezes Abed's hand where it rests in his, and reaches for a brownie.

**Author's Note:**

> come talk to me on [Tumblr](https://readandwritesilver.tumblr.com/) or [Twitter](https://twitter.com/HOMINGPIGE0N) if you want
> 
> As always, any and all feedback is appreciated :)
> 
> Much love, Clover <3


End file.
